Bridlington to the Costa Brava, as quick as we could. Left on 30th December and were there for lunch on the 31st. We hadn't even stopped to check that everything was working on our brand new van.

My first letter was written in January 2003 in response to emails from friends who were concerned as to our whereabouts. You can read more below.

We are staying in a place called Palamos which is about 70 miles north of Barcelona.

We had a good but tiring journey down. We left Yorkshire on 30th December in the pouring rain. There was absolutely NO traffic until we got to the M25 which was full of people queing for the sales-didn’t they spend enough at Christmas? Anyway we decided we wanted to be in our destination for New Years Eve so we splashed out on autoroutes and arrived in the Costa Brava on 31st in the morning.

We had had a recommendation to go to La Franc but on making enquiries at tourist information there was only one campsite open. So off we went. Any of you who may be wondering if I have driven the van yet may like to know that I was allowed to at 2.00am just south of Lyon when Mike got too tired to carry on. Yes, its big, I had to have lots of diet coke to keep me awake, you can’t see what’s behind you very well but I did it with lots of adrenaline thrown in for good measure.

We couldn’t stop for sleep as we have read about gangs that operate along the autoroutes robbing camper vans. This has since been confirmed by people we have met here who say you need to allow a 100km corridor free of the autoroutes.

Anyway it rained all the way through Fance until we crossed the border into Spain and it was hot and sunny.

We booked into a campsite which is terraces set in pine trees so it’s a steep slope to the loo! It is practically empty everywhere so when we go out most bars and restaurants are shut but its just us and the locals which is great. We also have unlimited hot water which is a bonus.

All the gizmos work fine on the van . We have stayed on the one site to get used to everything there is a handful of other people, a few Germans, one loveley Irish couple-who have been here since November and us.

The weather here has been sunny everyday for about 10 days. It is very cold at night with ice on the puddles but it has been between 14 and 20 degrees during the day. There was one occaision when it rained heavily for 36 hours.If any of you are wondering what we do with the time it passes very quickly. We have a walk nearly every day along the coastal path. The coastline is stunning. We have maintained our New Years resolutions-Mike has lost 9lbs and I have lost 6.

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves and I even managed to do a full curry for the Irish couple which was no mean feat in such a small space.